There are many different types of consumable beverage dispensers and one popular type consists of a liquid container having an attached flexible tube or straw. When designing such a beverage dispenser, there are several desirable qualities. The dispenser should be portable and able to provide beverage to a user without regard to the height above ground of the dispenser relative to the user. A person should also be able to drink from such a dispenser even if the dispenser is not exactly upright and even if the dispenser is located below a person's mouth level as might be the case if the person were holding the dispenser in their hand. Moreover, the beverage dispenser should be easy to use, without elaborate flow mechanisms and valves.
It is also desirable that a consumable beverage dispenser prevent air and back flow from entering the dispenser between sips. If air does enter the dispenser between sips, then the user must first evacuate the air in the container during subsequent sips before obtaining beverage from the container. If back flow enters the dispenser between sips, then there is a possibility of contaminating the beverage remaining in the container. It would also be advantageous for such a portable drink dispenser to be closable so that a user could drink from the dispenser and then seal the dispenser for later use.
Heretofore, numerous beverage dispensers having an attached straw have been designed; however, none of those designs completely embodies all of the desirable qualities discussed above. An early example of a drinking device with an attached hose is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,756,740 to Deane, which discloses a drinking device for hospital patients. This device consists of an inverted bottle having a liquid flow tube extending from the "bottom" of the inverted bottle. A valve assembly is located where the tube terminates near a mouthpiece. To drink from this device, a hospital patient must grab the valve device and exert pressure on a valve plunger to open the valve, at which point the patient can then consume the beverage inside the bottle.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,098 to Eger discloses a portable liquid dispenser also having a plunger type valve located near a mouthpiece. In the Eger dispenser, however, the liquid is pressurized to force it through a drinking tube connected at the top of the container.
Containers such as those disclosed in Deane and Eger are disadvantageous in two respects. First, these devices require a user to depress a plunger on the valve assembly. Thus, they are inconvenient to use and cannot be used by people not having full use of at least one hand, such as those paralyzed or injured. Second, since these devices utilize a rigid liquid container, they can only be used in their proper orientation. That is, the Deane device must be inverted and the Eger device must be upright, as the drinking tube in Deane attaches to the inverted "top" of the bottle and the intake for the drinking tube in Eger is located near the bottom of its container.
Flexible containers overcome some of the disadvantages of rigid containers and indeed flexible containers with attached drinking tubes have often been designed for use in sports. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,833 to Edison et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,142 to Holmes disclose flexible bladders having attached drinking tubes for use primarily in bicycling. The Holmes drinking bag is mouth-pressurized and, in one embodiment, a rubberized bite-valve is disposed at the end of the drinking tube. The Edison apparatus includes a collapsible water container located within a backpack device and also utilizes a bite-valve at the end of the drinking tube. While these devices allow for hands-free operation, they are disadvantageous in that they require users to hold a valve mechanism inside their mouths for prolonged periods.
As the above discussion shows, it would be desirable to have a portable consumable beverage dispenser that could be used in any orientation and without the need for biting or-otherwise pushing on a valve mechanism to take a drink. Additionally, it would also be desirable if such a dispenser could prevent back flow and air entry into the beverage container and also be resealable.